Madden 102

You can tell that I’m a product of Action!PC football by Dave Koch Sports – I like to call formations, plays, subs, and who’s blitzing, but I’m not a thumb-jockey by trade, and it may come as a surprise to many that I sometimes hit the ‘3’ button when I should hit ‘4’. Don’t tell Chris, but one first down last Saturday was thrown into what looked like quadruple coverage in just such an instance. I own Madden ’03, but without a human opponent, that game didn’t have any endurance factor relative to other things I was playing. Prior to now, I’ve never gotten over the fact that Tiki Barber can stink just because it’s me controlling his movements.

Regarding the cone. I’m not using it yet(?)(!). On offense, I’m focusing on high percentage routes in my play selection, reading the defense, calling audibles, calling hot-routes and changing primary receivers. I realize this will not serve me well against experienced opponents, but for now it keeps the ball moving and I don’t intend to get complacent. It seems that if you don’t yet have a feel for when the WR curl actually comes open during your QB’s drop, for example, you can put the cone right on your man and it won’t matter much. This is Madden 102 I’m taking, guys. I think most people are in the 500-level advanced courses. I’ll start scanning soon, but not just yet.

Somebody mentioned in one of the Madden fan site threads that the game slows down gradually if you play it a lot…not a revelation, but its pretty key to your development and I think it’s starting to happen already after a week. That said, I have NOT mastered throwing the ball away as Chris mentions, so I’m taking a fair number of sacks, and my reads when running the ball are only beginning to show some feel. I’m not sure I’m a good judge of whether or not the gameplay is too ‘slow’, but I also watch a lot of NFL football and I don’t get that impression in the least. I re-watch a lot of my practice and solo plays in slow motion, and I can see where the runner falling, getting tripped up, or bouncing between two defenders as he goes down would give that “quicksand” impression, but it doesn’t occur to me at all when playing head to head.

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